This week, the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation launched a new chapter in the rich United Nations history in Egypt. We have signed – all 19 UN agencies with operational activities in the country – a new United Nations Partnership Development Framework (UNPDF) with the Minister Dr. Sahar Nasr, detailing our partnership with the Government of Egypt over the next five years. It entails a total resource envelope of US$ 1.2 billion and builds on the capacities of the UN development system, that reached in 2015/16 nearly 33 million Egyptians through various projects and partnerships with Government and civil society.
In 2015, when I attended the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA), I witnessed world leaders reach a landmark agreement to save the planet and humanity itself, through establishing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Little did I know at the time that two years later, I would work with one of the most pre-eminent emerging economies in the world to give shape to its sustainable development pathway.
UNESCO opened the first UN office in Egypt in 1948, immediately followed by the UN Information Center, which has occupied the same office in Garden City since 1949. Meanwhile, all development agencies of the UN have set up offices in Cairo, including some 10 regional offices, making Egypt one of the UN s global hubs. Egypt, as a founding member of the UN, is a five-time elected member of the UN Security Council.
Egypt has been part of the negotiations that gave rise of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Right. Egypt is one of the countries that gave shape to UN peacekeeping and contributed over 30,000 personnel in 37 missions across the world. UN Secretary General (UNSG), H.E. Boutros Boutros-Ghali is still much revered amongst UN staff and Egypt has over the years provided chief executives for several UN organizations, including IAEA and UNEP. Egypt is a country that has contributed to forming the UN and that continues to play a major role in the intergovernmental debate as the Chair of the G77 and a proactive member of the Human Rights Council.
The world is in dire straits and, as UNSG Mr. Antonio Guterres noted in his lecture at the Cairo University in 2017, “it needs multilateralism more than ever before”. The solutions that will save the planet from over exploration, unsustainable practices and the scourge of war, are not exclusively within countries but among countries.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted at the UN General Assembly in 2015, have a strong focus on integrated and innovative solutions for peace, planet, people and prosperity. These apply equally to Germany as much as to Egypt, and to Mozambique as much as to the United States of America. All countries, individually and collectively, need to commit themselves to play their part in seeking global solutions and to change the current unstainable trajectory. It is safe to say that SDGs have fundamentally reset the agenda for the UN.
By adopting the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030 (SDS) in early 2016, Egypt is committed to operationalizing the SDGs. Based on the initial successes of the SDS, it is expected that the process will unfold with an emphasis on economic expansion and increasing employment, integrated development solutions, behavioral adaptability to the idea of sustainability, and innovation.
Moreover, it will focus on the reduction of inequities in society, especially with its emphasis on the impetus of the 2030 Agenda, leaving no one behind. It is now the time for a ripened partnership that makes use of the knowledge, expertise and experience of the UN combined to give shape to a much more sustainable future for Egypt, as one of the global leaders in SDGs.
In 2016, Egypt was one of the first countries to present its SDG situation analysis at the High Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development at the UN in New York. This serves as a cutting-edge basis for the discussions that have been conducted since. Egypt presented a clear situation analysis that outlines past achievements, opportunities but also challenges to success. In 2018, Egypt is poised to provide its second update to the world community at the UNGA in New York.
It is easy to get carried away with opportunities – particularly in the current context where the economy is showing early signs of recovery, following the adoption of socio economic reform - and to overlook the challenges and obstacles on the road ahead to achieve a truly prosperous and sustainable Egypt, where all people can enjoy social justice and wellbeing. In adopting socio-economic reform in late 2016, Egypt has taken the very difficult steps of adjusting the economy to the global realities. Yet, it has also had considerable and expected impact on the living conditions of no less than 28 percent of the population that live below the national poverty line (2015).
The UNDPF, developed through consultations between the UN and no less than 400 participants representing 18 Ministries, Government departments, private sector and civil society, makes the choice to focus our partnership on the most significant disparities, for instance, those between men and women, different regions of the country and different parts of society. It builds on ongoing joint work, for instance, to expand social safety nets, generate youth employment, upscale family planning, protection of coastal zones, women s empowerment etc.
The UN system, led by the UNSG Mr. Guterres, takes its role in protecting the planet and safeguarding humanity seriously. Global phenomena such as over-population, climate change and civil strife and war, requires the contribution by all for the world to come together and to find innovative solutions to highly complex problems. This requirement is recognized by Egypt and the UN – we must innovate and take a different course of action. The hard work began already in 2016, setting the stage for the participatory consultations in 2017 that led to this new UNPDF - we all know that the devil is in the details - and we can safely assume that we still have a lot of hard work ahead.
That is the challenge that we have decided to have as the centerpiece of our renewed Partnership – to jointly find new SDG inspired solutions. The UN and Egypt have been successful together before and now is the time to continue building upon this spirit. Further dialogues to uncover integrated sustainable pathways for People, Planet, Prosperity and Women will require us to jointly examine our past experiences and identify new innovative solutions. These will range from focusing food and nutrition, through demographic dividends to high level investment in the future of Egypt s children and youth.
Our partnership should drive a process of acceleration in poverty reduction, economic growth, social cohesion and environmental sustainability. How can we increase the labour participation of women? How do we plan for well-organized and safe cities and more complex human habitats that are productive spaces offering quality of life? How can we unleash the productive and creative capacities of young people so that they can contribute to a massive expansion of employment? How do we make that economic growth green and sustainable, based on Egypt s incredible agricultural potential?
Not all questions have answers yet, but we have learned about our joint capacity for dialogue over the past two years, and we, at the UN, are confident that we will be able to deliver for Egypt and its people.
